Hot shot Jack Rodwell can remain a true blue at Everton FC

23 February 2010 09:00

JACK RODWELL held one of the more unwanted records in the Premier League prior to Saturday's hugely impressive defeat of Manchester United.

The meticulously compiled, if perhaps overly thorough, Barclays Premier League statement revealed that Rodwell had fired off the most shots without scoring this season.

A precisely dispatched right-footed shot made it 27th time lucky for the 18-year-old - and overshadowed the Manchester United striker who leads the way with shots on (76) and off target (54) so far this season.

But it wasn't just on the pitch that Rodwell was being compared to Wayne Rooney.

Just as Rooney's emergence at Goodison Park in 2002 saw him instantly branded 'too big for Everton' and the subject of eventually realised transfer speculation, Rodwell has already been found himself on tabloid backpages linked with Chelsea and Saturday afternoon's victims, United.

But times have changed.

Blues boss David Moyes admits that he has far fewer worries about Rodwell's long-term Goodison future than he did with his ultimately Old Trafford bound predecessor.

'We weren't ready when Wayne came on the scene,' admitted Moyes.

'We're ready for Jack Rodwell and our team is good enough to carry a Jack Rodwell and keep bigger suitors away.

'There's been quite a lot of attention towards Jack Rodwell for a while. But strangely enough, it was Wayne that worried me a lot more.

'It doesn't worry me quite so much with Jack because we've been through it before.